Maybe Knight
by mistlove
Summary: Flynn and Rita talk for the first time in Eastern Hyponia after the monster attacks. Flynn gets to know her as more than just "that genius mage that hangs out with Yuri" and she doesn't mind the attention. Beginnings of Flynn/Rita.


**Title:** Maybe Knight  
**Summary:** Flynn and Rita talk for the first time in Eastern Hyponia after the monster attacks. Flynn gets to know her as more than just "that genius mage that hangs out with Yuri" and she doesn't mind the attention. Beginnings of Flynn/Rita.  
**Author:** mistlove  
**Copyrights:** Plot is mine. Everything else belongs to Namco Bandai.  
**A/N:**Yuri and Rita. I friendship-ship them. I really love the idea that Yuri looks out for Rita almost in a sibling manner and she gets frustrated with his teasing, but she does realize he cares.

Also, I believe Vesperia No. 1 is mana barrier control device thinger but I don't remember exactly so um. Correct me if I'm wrong.

* * *

Rita glances up intermittently while Yuri and Flynn talk about spirit conversion and the Adephagos. Her attention is more focused on Vesperia No. 1.

"I'll see what I can do about His Highness Ioder," Flynn reassures Yuri. "Why don't you guys rest for the night here?"

"Sorry, Flynn, Brave Vesperia has a world to save." Yuri shrugs. "No rest for the wicked."

Flynn frowns at him. "Weary," he corrects.

"The saying goes both ways," Yuri snips back. He smacks his sword up against his shoulder, leaning in as he smirks. "What, you don't think I'm wicked, _Commandant_?"

Flynn flushes at the use of the title. "Stop it."

"Alright, enough playing around." Yuri glances at the group, dropping his sword back down to his side, serious again. "Are we making a beeline for Nordopolica or do you guys want to sleep here?"

"Ba'ul isn't too tired yet, but I think it might do him some good to let him sleep a bit," Judith chimes in. She moves up to stand in front of Yuri. "But it _is_an urgent matter. It's your decision, Yuri."

"Geez, Judy, that did nothing to help solve the dilemma." Yuri tilts his head at her, smiling faintly before turning to the rest of the group. "What do the rest of you guys want to do?"

"I'm tired, Yuri!" Karol complains. "We were fighting monsters for hours. We have a few tents with us and I can set them up for us to sleep."

"You kids are cutting inta my old man nap time," Raven sighs, stretching lazily. "It wouldn't be terrible if we spent the night, right? Nordopolica ain't goin' anywhere."

"All of the guards have been healed," Estelle adds, "but I'd like to see if there's anything else I can do."

"And I'd like some time to re-analyze Vesperia No. 1 and see if I can't improve it somehow," Rita finally says. She turns the contraption over in her hands. "I'll keep working on it."

"You do that," Yuri nods at her, but gives her a sharp look. "but make sure you get some rest too. Alright, it's settled. We'll meet at the edge of the woods tomorrow morning to leave. Get some sleep."

The group disbands their separate ways.

Rita spots Yuri catching up to Estelle out of the corner of her eye. He pulls her close to kiss her forehead quickly and murmur something in her ear. She nods, pointing to some tired looking people to the right. He says something and she nods again firmly before shifting away. Yuri moves to go take a seat by a large tree, Repede by his side. He keeps his attention on Estelle.

Rita turns her gaze back to the contraption.

Yuri probably told her not to overexert herself. He's always more worried about her than he cares to admit. Estelle always assures them she won't work too hard, but she always does. Yuri's keeping an eye on her, having learned from previous situations. Rita doesn't worry about them.

Judith skips by her towards the exit of the woods. "Sleep tight," she says in passing.

"Sure." Rita waves a hand in dismissal.

She watches as Judith disappears into the shadows of the trees. The Krityan is probably checking up on Ba'ul. She's always worried about Ba'ul and she's comfortable enough with the group knowing that that she's no longer sneaking out to go meet him like she used to.

Rita moves towards a clump of bushes and sits down by it, lugging her bags of parts she got from Capua Nor.

Raven and Karol catch her eye. They're working together to set up the tents. Karol's excitedly rattling off instructions as the archer listens and nods with a fond smile on his face. Raven turns, catching her gaze. He smiles ruefully before looking away.

Rita turns to her bag of parts and gets to work on building another mana barrier.

...

"Would you like some Amango Tea?"

Rita jolts to attention, snapping out of her research daze. She looks up to see Flynn smiling at her, one hand extended to her, offering a cup of steaming hot tea.

"Um. Sure, thanks." Rita absently pats the ground, turning her attention back to her research. "Set it down. I'll drink it later."

"Ah," Flynn shakes his head before smiling, "Yuri told me you'd say that."

She blinks. "What?"

"Yuri's worried about you." Flynn shifts to sit down by her. He pushes his offering hand into her view again. "He thinks you're working too hard. He sent me over to bother you."

Rita stares at the tea cup for a moment before finally taking it. She blows on it and takes a couple sips before answering. "Because he thinks I'll listen to you because you're so much more polite than he is?"

"Yes."

"Wh-" Rita frowns at him, "you're honest."

"That's a good trait, no?" Flynn smiles brightly.

"I... I didn't say it was a bad one," she mumbles, hiding her flushing face by drinking the tea. She gags when it burns her tongue.

Flynn helpfully rubs her back, looking worried. "Are you alright?"

Yuri is grinning at them wickedly from where he's sitting. She should've known he'd send Flynn over. She hates to admit it, but she does have soft spot for overly nice people like him and Estelle.

"I'm..."

She considers getting up, blasting Yuri's stupid, knowing grin off his face with her fireball spell. But Flynn is here, looking at her with wide, concerned eyes and- screw everything, she's going to gut Yuri later.

"I'm fine," she insists, wiping at her mouth.

"That's good." He pulls his hand away from her back, setting both absently in his lap. "Rita, thank you for today," he says, the look in his blue eyes distant.

She blinks. "For what?"

"For the mana barrier you created." Flynn turns to tap his finger on the contraption in her lap. "You saved a lot of good people today."

Rita takes a moment to note his features. He's baby-faced, looking so young for a man who already has more accomplishments than much older people. His bangs fan across his forehead, dipping past his eyes here and there. The locks curve to the left, as though he keeps pushing them aside, saying he'll cut them short another time.

"It was nothing," she replies finally. "It's just a prototype. I needed you guys to be a test run anyway."

"Oh?" Flynn quirks a questioning eyebrow at her. "Are you saying you risked Yuri's, Repede's, and my life for a test?"

"N-No! Yes! I mean-" She scowls when she sees him grin knowingly. "You jerk! You _are_like Yuri!"

"Ha ha, I'm sorry." He raises his hands up in passive gesture. "I didn't mean to tease you."

"Tch." Rita turns her head away.

She watches as Yuri gestures towards them and says something with a wide grin when Estelle sits down by his side, back from whoever she was helping. Estelle claps a hand over her mouth, looking over at them in adoration. She giggles and waves when she notices Rita glancing over at them. Knowing Yuri, he probably told her something idiotically romantic about the situation over here just for the fun of it.

"Rita?"

The mage turns her attention back to the Imperial Knight reluctantly.

"What," she snaps, her annoyance at Yuri shifting to Flynn.

"I'm sorry." Flynn falters, looking apologetic. He pulls himself onto his haunches and moves to stand up. "I am keeping you up. I'll go."

"No!" She snatches his arm before he stands all the way up. She blushes when he looks at her, surprised.

Yuri and Estelle are still smiling widely at them and now Karol is pointing at them, saying something to Raven. The archer looks at them, smiling happily and mournfully.

She tears her gaze away from Raven. "We should go somewhere else to talk," Rita gets out hurriedly, standing up. She keeps a grip on his wrist and tugs him after her. "Follow me."

Rita doesn't look back, even though she feels Raven's gaze still on her.

...

She finally stops at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean.

"That's better," she sighs, sitting down. No one's watching her embarrass herself out here. She shifts to dangle her legs over the edge.

"Was there something private you wanted to talk about?" Flynn asks obliviously, moving to sit by her side.

"I just wanted to get out where it was quieter," she explains hastily.

"Peace and quiet _is_good," Flynn agrees, looking out into the ocean with a faraway look in his eyes. "I've been so busy lately, I'd forgotten how nice it is to just relax."

"You've been running around like a chicken about to give birth," Rita snorts. She kicks her legs up lightly, settling into a steady swinging rhythm.

Flynn chuckles before breaking out into a full mirthful laugh. "Ha ha! I suppose you're right. I must look ridiculous to you guys."

"I never said wanting to save the world was a bad thing," Rita says evenly.

"No, you didn't." His laughter fades into a sad smile. "But ultimately, I'm not the one getting the job done. Yuri is."

"You both help out in your own ways. Yuri doesn't like attention unless it's negative." Rita lies back, cushioning her head with her arms. "He told me once he needed to have a lot of energy so he could make that much more mischief." She closes her eyes.  
"He's a good guy, but he likes doing things the fun, destructive way."

"Would I be wrong in saying you appear to be the same way?" Flynn asks. His tone is neutral, but she can see his smile out of the corner of her eye.

"You and Yuri really _are_alike." She sits back up, smirking. "You are both more blunt than hammers."

Flynn looks flustered. "Sorry, did I offend you?"

"Please." Rita flops back down. "The old man doesn't even offend me with his lewd comments. You're vanilla compared to him."

"You mean Captain Schwann?"

Rita feels her muscles lock up and her heart speed up at the haunting image of Schwann's face as he lunged to stab her in the Shrine of Baction. She closes her eyes, the image burning itself into her memory.

"Rita?" He sounds concerned.

"Sorry. It's nothing."

The two stay silent for a long moment before Rita speaks up again.

"Did you just come talk to me... because Yuri told you to?"

"No. I didn't have to listen to him."

She sits back up, looking at him squarely in the eyes. "Why bother with me?"

"Why bother with anyone?" Flynn asks in reply, tilting his head at her. He looks down into his hands. "Because we're worth it. Duke wants to sacrifice humanity. But humans are worth saving."

He's naive. So naive. He's idealistic and trusting to a fault, always wanting to see the good in people. Yuri's different. Rita saw the look in Yuri's eyes when he looked at people like Yeager and Alexei. With Flynn, it's different. His blue eyes always had this disgusted yet hopeful look in them when he watched Alexei at The Eternal Shrine of Zaude.

She runs her tongue absently against the back of teeth and cringes when it stings from the tea burn she got from earlier. He had brought her Amango Tea. He's kind too. Flynn's gentle, the kind of gentle that makes people want to trust him, to follow him. Rita wonders if in another world, if she would have become a swordswoman instead of a mage... if she would have blindly followed Flynn like Sodia does now.

Flynn's fingers slowly clench into a fist. "Even people like Ragou and Cumore. We all deserve a chance to live."

"What, and some of them have to spend it behind bars?" She can't help her tone.  
She's naturally cynical.

"Yes." Flynn stands up, looking out into the horizon. "Justice is needed for order and balance." He turns to look down at her. "I wanted to talk to you because I felt we're similar."

Rita looks up at him expectantly. He doesn't look down at her but continues.

"We both work too hard. And when it's time for us to rest, we end up worrying about other people or our work instead." He drops his gaze to her. "Look at what we're doing now. Talking about the future, worrying about the others."

Rita holds his gaze evenly before moving to stand up next to him. She looks out at the ocean. "Terca Lumireis is going to be reborn. A world without blastia. I'll have lost my purpose in life." She points to the horizon where the sun is starting to peek out. "But I'll have found a new one. Guarding the new Terca Lumireis."

"You won't change, will you?"

"No. I'll still stay up late researching mana and spirits." She turns to him, unable to hold back her smile. "And you'll be Commandant. Of knights who have lost their bodhi blastia."

"Ha ha. We've got quite a road ahead of us," Flynn sighs, sweeping his bangs out of his eyes, staying still for a moment. "When this is all over, will you visit?"

"Visit what?"

"Me."

Rita blinks.

He smiles and it's so honest and open and trusting. "I'd like to talk more with you sometime. I think we have a lot in common."

"I-I'm not promising anything," she stammers, flushing.

God, it's like Estelle all over again. She can't decide if she loves or can't stand idealistic, trusting people like Flynn and Estelle.

"You don't have to," he replies honestly, shrugging. "It was just something I wanted to put out there."

"I'll..." She folds her arms across her chest, tilting her head away from him and closing her eyes. "I'll t-take it into consideration."

"Thank you."

They stand and look out into the rising sun together for several long minutes before deciding it would be best to get a few hours of rest before tomorrow.

Rita hasn't had the best of experiences with the Imperial Knights between Alexei, Schwann, and various others.

But maybe Commandant Flynn isn't so bad.


End file.
